This application claims priority from Japanese Application No. P2000-175886 filed Jun. 12, 2000, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein.
The present invention relates to optical recording apparatus, and more particularly relates to an optical recording apparatus capable of displaying information indicating whether a session is closed so that a CD-ROM drive can read data recorded on a recording medium using laser light. Also, the present invention relates to an optical-recording-medium residual-space displaying method for displaying the residual space on a recording medium on a display unit.
Disk-shaped recording media which utilize optical mark reading (hereinafter referred to as optical disks), such as compact disks (CDs), have a large storage capacity and can be accessed randomly. Since optical mark reading is contactless, it does not involve risks such as head crashes and abrasion and damage caused by reading, as compared with contact type recording media such as magnetic tapes. Because the surface of a disk is robust, the risk of accidentally losing data is low. Accordingly, optical disks have many advantages and are suitable as computer peripheral memory and recording media in which data can be created and stored reliably.
Recently, read-write apparatus which utilize a so-called CD-R (compact disk-recordable), which is a write-once optical disk, have been developed. Among CD-R""s, there is one type of CD-R in which data is easily written in accordance with all standard formats used in compact disks such as CD-ROM (compact disk read only memory), CD-ROM/XA (CD-ROM extended architecture), CD-I (compact disc interactive), and CD-DA (compact disk digital-audio). In order to obtain the above-described advantages, in place of conventional magnetic tapes and magnetic disks, CD-R""s are installed in electronic apparatus and used as media from and/or to which data is read and/or written.
Since data to be recorded is written to a CD-R in an incremental manner, table of contents (TOC) information, which is recorded on the inner perimeter of a CD-ROM or the like, cannot be written when the CD-R is still in a recordable state.
In other words, a session is not closed or finalized until a proper amount of data is written to the CD-R. When the session has been closed, the TOC information, which is index information for the recording medium, is written.
When a session is not closed, that is, when the CD-R is in a recordable state, the start position for writing data and the recorded position for reading data can be detected by referring to a provisional TOC written in a program memory area (PMA) of the recording medium. Because a CD-ROM drive cannot read the provisional TOC written in the PMA, the CD-ROM drive cannot read a write-once recording medium until a session on the recording medium has been closed. In order to enable the CD-ROM drive to read the write-once recording medium, it is necessary to close the session.
FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing a process of closing a session by a conventional recording.
In response to an instruction by the user to close a session, in step S41, the process reads information concerning written areas including the session""s provisional TOC from a PMA on a recording medium.
In step S42, the process creates a normal TOC based on the information in the written areas. In step S43, the process embeds zero in a lead-out area.
In step S44, the process writes the normal TOC in a lead-in area. When the writing is completed, the session closing is completed.
Concerning a recording medium in which session closing is performed, there are a portion which is readable by a CD-ROM drive in which one or more sessions are closed and an unreadable portion in which a session is not closed. When the residual space of the recording medium is displayed, no distinction is made between the readable portion and the unreadable portion.
When the residual space on a recording medium is simply displayed in this manner, it is impossible to determine whether the recording medium is readable by a CD-ROM drive. A digital still camera and a read-write system which use the recording medium and the CD-ROM drive are required to separately have a function for checking information concerning session closing. Thus, operation of the digital still camera and the read-write system becomes complicated.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an optical recording apparatus which enables a user to recognize, by looking at a display, whether a session has been closed, thus assisting the user in determining whether to perform session closing. Another object of the present invention is to provide an optical-recording-medium residual-space displaying method which enables a user of an optical recording apparatus to recognize, by looking at a display, whether a session has been closed, thus assisting the user in determining whether to perform session closing.
According to an aspect of the present invention, the foregoing objects are achieved through provision of an apparatus for optically recording data on a recording medium which includes a write unit operable to write data to the recording medium. A session closing unit performs a session closing operation with respect to the data written to the recording medium, thereby enabling a reading apparatus to read information written to the recording medium by the write unit. A display unit displays information concerning the session closing operation, and a controller causes the display unit to display the information concerning session closing based on whether the session closing operation has been performed.
In the optical recording apparatus, the controller causes the display unit to display the information concerning session closing with respect to the information written to the recording medium by the write unit.
The controller may detect the residual space on the recording medium and create residual-space information based on the residual space. The residual-space information and the information concerning session closing may be displayed. An icon representing an integrated combination of the information concerning session closing and the residual-space information may be displayed.
The display unit may display an icon representing a ratio of the space of the recording medium occupied by at least one closed session to the residual space.
The display unit may display an icon representing a ratio between at least one closed session and an unclosed session from among the information written to the recording medium, the icon distinguishing the display of the ratio from the display of the residual space information.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the foregoing objects are achieved through provision of a method for displaying the residual space on a recording medium on which data has been optically recorded. The method includes performing a session closing operation to enable data written to the recording medium to be read; creating information concerning the session closing operation based on whether the session closing operation has been performed; detecting a residual space on the recording medium based on the amount of the information written to the recording medium; creating residual space information based on the residual space; and displaying the information concerning session closing and the residual-space information.
The display step may display the residual space information and the information concerning session closing with respect to the information written to the recording medium.
The display step may display an icon representing a ratio of the space of the recording medium occupied by at least one closed session to the residual space.
The display step may display an icon representing a ratio between at least one closed session and an unclosed session from among the information written to the recording medium, the icon distinguishing the display of the ratio from the display of the residual space information.
According to the present invention, it is possible to enable a user to recognize, by looking at a display, whether session closing has been performed, thus assisting the user in determining whether to perform session closing.